A team that works incredibly hard all year, and rarely gets recognition for being a true sport: this week’s Campus Celebrity is the University of Maine Cheerleading Team.
Some students may think cheerleaders are nothing more than ditzy girls jumping around in short skirts. What our cheerleaders have proven is that they are the complete opposite; strong, dedicated athletes who put in hours of hard week each day to improve as individuals and as a team. They’re pros at tumbling, basket tosses and pyramids. And placing 6th at the Nationals and winning the Challenge Cup proves it.
This past week, the cheerleaders headed down to Daytona Beach to compete against hundreds of other schools. Just making it there was a feat – these competitions are incredibly expensive. And because they aren’t a varsity sport they don’t have a budget. Their only source for funds is through fundraising, which they started in May 2010 for this year’s competition, doing things like spaghetti suppers and raffles.
The fundraising and practice nearly every day really makes the team a family. Lysa Laverdiere tells how supportive the team is of each other, irrespective of what the outcome at the competition was.
“I said to my team right before we walked out, regardless of what happened that each and everyone of those members of my team had become my brothers and sisters,” Laverdiere said. “I was so proud of them.”
They started out in the preliminaries and the top six teams automatically make it to the finals. The girls and boys barely missed their mark, coming in 7th. Although spirits were low, there was still a chance when they moved into the Challenge Cup. After winning this, they were then moved onto finals, in which they came in 6th.
Annie Smith, the sole senior on the team and president, talks about what the competition was like.
“The competition itself is surreal for people who have followed cheerleading their entire lives. You perform indoors on a stage with spotlights and fog machines and if you make it to the finals you perform on a stage shaped like a sand castle right on Daytona Beach,” Smith said. “There are ESPN cameras zooming overhead.”
The UMaine cheerleaders out-did cheerleaders from Boston University and the University of Albany. Although they didn’t quite place as high as they wanted, everyone is looking forward to next year. Laverdiere talks about how they are a very young team, and there is still a lot of promise for them.
“There were only five of us who were part of the team two years ago,” Laverdiere said. “Although it wasn’t quite the sport we had hoped, being such a young team gives us hope for the future because we can only move on and get better from here.”
Although this competition is physically taxing, it’s more than worth the hard work. There is an incredible sense of camaraderie and friendship within this team, and it comes from the fact they work so hard together all year. MacKenzie Murphy said,
“It’s exhausting at times but as soon as I get to Nationals, I am reminded of why I spend the entire year working so hard.”
It’s a lot of work for just a three minute routine, and so many things have to be included. They practice all year, but they don’t go to any other competitions. This is somewhat of an obstacle for them, because it means that they don’t get a chance before Nationals to be judged and to see what they need to improve on.
Hard work and time management is key, to get them through the year.
“We try to work hard throughout the year to show people that we aren’t just a bunch of girls standing in skirts in the sidelines cheering for our school’s athletes,” Murphy said, “but that we are also athletes who put in just as much hard work and have a goal of winning a championship just like every other athlete on our campus does.”
Our UMaine cheerleaders are always there supporting our varsity teams. They’re often on the sidelines, loudly cheering but quietly recognized. They have worked double shifts as students and cheerers all year, and it paid off. Congrats to our cheerleading team!
Looking to join? Contact Melinda Kenny on FirstClass. Tryouts are April 29th from 4-7 and April 30th from 10-2 in the multi-purpose room of the Field House.
Images from Facebook.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Maine chapter.